Darwin Cricket 2024: Waratah take challenge to Southern Districts
A strong Waratah bowling attack put the Southern Districts batters on the back foot in an enthralling day of Top End cricket. Catch up on the latest Darwin cricket action.
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Southern Districts made hard work of batting first on the placid Gardens Oval pitch and just before the close on day one of their Darwin A-grade match against Waratah, they were bowled out for a moderate 217.
However, Districts hit back in the last over and Tahs ended the day at 1-8.
Keen to bowl first because of the news that pace ace Noah McFadyen will return to his home state of Queensland during the week, Tahs skipper Jagadeswara Koduru called correctly.
However, McFadyen, who was coming off a career best senior performance of eight wickets, and fellow seamer Crandel Siegelwin failed to make the early breakthrough against a resolute Districts opening pair of Nic Broes and Dylan Mullen.
Yet, it was Siegelwin who got the first wicket when he had Mullen brilliantly caught behind by keeper Liam Blackford with the score on 40.
Joshua Gawthorpe came and went the very next ball and when Jackson Isakka was dismissed by McFadyen soon after, the rural team was precarious at 3-66 but skipper Tim Garner (33), Lachlan Bangs (25) and Chris McEvoy (42) steadied the ship and pushed the score to 217.
Runs were hard to come by from the economical bowling of Udara and Madura Weerasinghe and while McFadyen didn’t replicate his most recent performance, he bowled a non-stop 15 tidy overs in the first spell of his final game for Waratah.
McFadyen will return to Brisbane and compete in the upcoming T20 Max competition and is seriously considering a permanent move to South Australia where he will connect with a club and endeavour to break into the SACA first class arena.
“I enjoyed my extended bowling in the first spell today and while I only took one wicket, I like long spells with the new ball and so it was perfect and I could experiment a little bit with swing and bounce,” McFadyen said.
“Wickets were a bit harder to come by for me today but my haul of eight last week was my best in first grade cricket and beat the seven wickets in the Brisbane Premier Grade grand final last season with Norths.”
McFadyen is leaving Darwin early next week to go back to Brisbane and then to South Australia so today is likely to be his last stint with Tahs.
“I’ll play the Queensland Cricket T20 Max which gets under way in August and then move to South Australia where hopefully I do well and come to the attention of the SACA selectors,” the 21-year-old bowling all-rounder said.
“Not sure in what form of cricket my future lies, and while I like the tactics of the white ball game, red ball cricket probably suits my skills-set a bit better.”
In other round 10 games, Nightcliff bounced back following an outright defeat and after being sent in by PINT, the Tigers ended the day on a healthy 6-295.
A third wicket partnership of 187 between Jordan Roads (116) and a revitalised Paul Wasiewicz (105no) was the catalyst in setting the imposing target. PINT rotated through eight bowlers with Coby Edmondstone (2-47) and Nicholas Bembrick (2-54) being the most productive.
And top-of-the-table Palmerston is very much in control of its match against Tracy Village. The Village batsmen floundered against spin pair Rommel Shahzad (5-31) and Hamish Martin (3-52) and were bowled out for 160 in 66.3 overs. In reply, the Maroons are 1-28.
Results:
Southern Districts 10-217 (Nic Broes 47, Chris McEvoy 42; Udara Weerasinghe 4-38, Crandel Siegelwin 3-38) v Waratah 1-8.
Tracy Village 10-160 (Guntaas Brar 57, Steven Roser 42; Rommel Shahzad 5-31, Hamish Martin 3-52) v Palmerston 1-28.
Nightcliff 6-295 (Jordan Roads 116, Paul Wasiewicz 105no; Coby Endmondstone 2-47, Nicholas Bembrick 2-52) v PINT.
Bye: Darwin.
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